an upgrade to our hotel in Tiberias - Nofim Hotel, next to the Tiberias Hot Springs.

a discount of $80 on the Egypt portion - total cost from Denver is now $4350

Our tour guide, Pastor Paul Rowold, reports:

I have been in frequent contact with friends in Egypt and our guide there, Bishoy. They all give a picture of new joy among the Egyptian people and an optimism for a bright future. So much of the Egyptian economy is based on tourism that they are putting lavish efforts into the security, comfort, and enjoyment of every tourist who comes. Sites which have always been crowded in the past are waiting for people like us to tour them without congestion.

Please send your $300 deposit by April 1. We have extended the “refundable” clause, making it fully refundable until June 1, when the balance of the cost of the trip is due. If it is necessary to cancel the pilgrimage, we will refund everything we are able to get back from the airlines and tour companies, which should be at least 80% (and probably more) of the cost of the trip.

Shout out, do not hold back!Lift up your voice like a trumpet!Announce to my people their rebellion…(Is. 58.1)

What is the worship God desires from us?

Is it the Bach cantata, or the praise band? The old familiar hymns, or some new ones? Does The red book, or the green, or the “cranberry”?

Isaiah is very clear here: what God desires is not our “fasting.” God is not impressed when we wear “sackcloth and ashes.” God is not moved by our rituals. God wants us to “loose the bonds of injustice.”

When I close my eyes and hear these words of Isaiah, I see the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, as they shouted out an end to tyranny, an end to oppression, an end to the misery of the poor, who cannot afford to buy food for their families. They stood their ground, occupying the square, until their demands were heard. Mubarak stepped down—his ruthless and cruel suppression of dissent finally overcome by the sheer numbers and persistence of the demonstrators.

Like Isaiah, these demonstrators protest hypocrisy. Isaiah saw the hypocrisy of the people who worshipped God by wearing sackcloth and ashes, but did nothing to care for God’s people. The demonstrators shouted out the hypocrisy of a president who amassed a large fortune while the people were going hungry. They shouted out the hypocrisy of a United States that talks democracy and freedom, but provides $1.5b for “security,” which tortures and silences those who question the government.

Ironically, many of the demonstrators were inspired by President Obama’s speech in Cairo shortly after he became president, in June of 2009. They were listening when he called for democracy, and they took him seriously when he announced his commitment to “governments that reflect the will of the people.”

Each Friday afternoon in Sheikh Jarrah, as Jerusalem prepares for the Sabbath, a crowd gathers; drummers march through the streets, past the house that used to belong to the Gawi family. These demonstrators, primarily Jewish Israelis, call on the government of Israel to end its hypocrisy, to match its deeds with its words—they hold placards saying “Not in my Name!” and “Free East Jerusalem” and “End the Occupation!” This is their worship…..their Shabbat.

On Fridays in Al-Walaja, Bil’in, Ni’lin, al-Ma’sara, Beit Ommar, Nabi Saleh, Bethlehem, and other villages throughout the West Bank, protesters leave the mosques after Friday prayers and march in non-violent action against the Israeli wall, still being built on Palestinian land. The wall continues to isolate these villages, cutting them off from families, schools, commerce and health care, forcing them to go through several checkpoints to get from one village in the West Bank to another.

Is not this the fast that I choose:To loose the bonds of injustice,To undo the thongs of the yoke,To let the oppressed go free,And to break every yoke? (Is. 58.6)

God of all hope, your prophets called your people to actions of justice and reconciliation. Help those of us who live in the land of opportunity and freedom to break the yoke of oppression where we see it, to feed your hungry people and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, so that the world may see your light “break forth like the dawn.” Amen.

Stories from Israel and Palestine...

from peacemakers on the ground, who are working to end the injustice of Israel’s occupation and bring peace to their land. Stories to help Americans, who, like me, have not understood what is really happening—in the words of one Jewish grandmother I met, "for my children and grandchildren."

A Lenten Geography, Meditations for Lent, 2014

As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, join me in listening to the texts for the Sundays in Lent through the stories of the "living stones"—the Christians, Jews and Muslims living in the ancient land of Palestine who are working to bring the good news of peace to that land today. The lessons are from the Revised Common Lectionary.

About Me

When I first traveled to Israel and Palestine in June, 2005, with Pastor Paul Rowold, I met Israelis and Palestinians and heard their stories about how difficult their lives have become under Israel's occupation and I witnessed all the ways they are bringing hope to their communities.
When I asked what I could to, they told me "Tell our stories." They were convinced that if the American people knew what was happening to them, their lives would be different.
I returned to visit with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups in June, 2008, and I have been the co-leader for two pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land in 2008 and 2009. In May-June 2010, I traveled with a Compassionate Listening delegation. Again, the Palestinians and the Jewish Israelis I met asked me to tell their stories of despair and hope—and about their work to build their communities and create a future of hope for their children. I have made two more trips—in 2011 and again this past fall,2013, with Interfaith Peace-builders. In the picture above, I'm protesting the occupation of Palestine by standing with the Women in Black at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections in June, 2008.